The legend of mini-sculpture by Gavrylo Martynovych Gluck
An interesting legend about this mini-sculpture is told by Nadiya Popadiuk in her book Uzhhorod – the World Capital of Mini-Sculptures. The legend says that once in 1954, in Uzhgorod, Gluck was approached by an interesting stranger with a physique that would have been the envy of the heroes of the myths of ancient Greece. The man said that the perfection of the relief and form was of great importance to him and asked him to paint a portrait in the way the artist would see him in his imagination. The next day, at the appointed time, the stranger appeared in Gluck’s studio and, without explaining anything to him, he handed him a long stick, asked him to lean on it and not move for an hour and began to paint. The artist was concentrating on the canvas when he suddenly stopped and exclaimed: “Willis is on a pedestal!” The stranger didn’t understand, he just asked quietly what had happened. Gluck looked him in the face confidently and said calmly: “The Willis is my favourite car, and you look just like it,” and turned the easel with the portrait to the man. Seeing the man’s frightened eyes, Havrylo Martynovych laughed and said he was joking, and then exclaimed again: “You are a woodcutter, a real woodcutter in my imagination!” The man thought that the artist was mocking him, so perfect and perfect, so he threw his props on the ground and quickly ran outside.
Thus, from the portrait of a stranger, Gluck’s outstanding work “The Loggers” was born, which brought him worldwide fame and high awards.
A few years later, while walking in Uzhgorod, at the intersection of Vakarov and Pidhirna streets, Gluck saw a mini-sculpture on a stone pedestal, and when he came closer, he recognised himself in it, driving his favourite SUV, Willis, with his legendary painting “Loggers” in the back seat. Shocked to the core, Havrylo Martynovych realised that the guest who had hurriedly fled his studio in 1954 without taking his portrait was a sculptor who adored the perfection of relief and form and made such a gift to him – immortalising his genius in his favourite city forever.
